I still use my tape player...What is the difference in the quality of a tape made via a 50watt /channel receiver or amp versus a tape made via a 100 watt /channel one? I know that the tape player is the biggest indicator of quality but I have always wondered this.....I know that the watts per channel is a measure of output and not input but there must be a correlation.
No, I wouldn't expect any direct correlation. Perhaps better receivers tend to have more power and better tape outs, but there are too many cheap receivers out there rated at 100W per channel to destroy any significant correlation.
If we are talking casette tape, then any receiver's outputs are likely to be better than that medium can record anyway.
I thought that maybe since a 100 watt /channel receiver would play back a tape with more clarity and power than a 50 watt/channel receiver, that when making a cassette tape, the more powerful receiver would provide a stronger and more clear signal to the tape player.....thanks
That is what I thought....let me relate what has had me wondering. I was recently listening to a tape which I had made 20 years ago and it sounded so full and alive and gorgeous, unlike the tapes that I had made recently, almost like the tape outs were cranked up. I had an Akai 510D tape deck which I rarely use and which I still own( and love). I also had a Technics sa700 receiver, now I have an SAE 2 amp/preamp....The sound is OK but not as good as the ones that I made with the Technics...could the receiver be the difference.? (This is what I was leading to with my initial question.....thanks..
One more question.....Now that I think of it, I am not sure that it was the Technics 700 that I bought around 1981-1984...what were the receivers, around at that time, which would have produced a full, almost three dimensional sound with a full bass and crystal treble..a very strong signal.....thanks again.....David White
This is all probably too late to be relevant. The message board has been 'down' for me !!?? "Normally the 'tape outputs' on an amp/receiver are at 'line level', and the recorder input, whatever it is, has its input circuit designed usually to be fed at that level (strength of signal.)The controls on the amp have no effect on that signal. It is possible to feed the signal from the speaker output connections/sockets(amp output being fed to the speakers)to the recorder but that signal line then has to be 'padded back', reduced, with resistors usually, or it will badly overload the input circuit of the recorder causing severe distortion on the cassette tape. The controls on the amp do affect that signal's quality. Your 'power output' is completely irrelevant, if anything the LESS the better if you are not picking it up at 'tape/line output' points. Re quality of older recordings; you would not be going back to the vinyl days - I would not think, but many people prefer the analogue audio of the lovely old vinyls (also tapes), to the digitised audio of CD's. Or current PC type audio files." Hope that helps.